In All Seriousness...This Election is Still a Tie?
C'mon people. We're counting on you down there.
Dear United States. (Especially the undecided voters.)
I apologize for being blunt, but…Enough of sitting this one out! The rest of the world is counting on you to do your job, your civic duty. If you want to be the superpower of the world you claim, and the “best country in the world” that you boast about, then you need to earn that title.
This was not the post I was planning to publish today, but I woke up this morning and saw the news coming out of the New York Times (NYT) showing the latest polling1 with the following headline blaring at me.
“Harris Had Stronger Debate, Polls Find, but the Race Remains Deadlocked.”
Deadlocked? Really?? Are you kidding me?
So, while Kamala Harris won the debate she is still in a statistical dead heat with the dead beat.
What the actual f*&k is wrong with you guys down there? (I’m sorry for lumping you all together, but truly, I’m scratching my head up here in Canada.)
This is on the heels of reading an opinion piece in the NYT from Bret Stephens saying he doesn’t want to have to “sit this one out”, but Harris has to earn his vote and, in his mind, she hadn’t done that yet.
And what, pray tell, does she need to do to earn Mr. Stephens’ vote?
He posed a series of questions that she had yet to answer—either at all, or satisfactorily enough for him. And then gave the countdown that she has seven weeks to “earn” it. It sounded mildly creepy and gross.
The questions ranged from what would she do about the Houthi’s (yes, you read that right, the Houthi’s)2 to what she’d do if she learned Iran was assembling nuclear weapons, to whether she would support a two-state solution if Hamas was still in power in Gaza. (Note to Bret: The Israel/Hamas war isn’t going to be solved by the President of the United States, no matter who’s in power.)
He states she better be quick about answering questions like these “if only to dispel a widespread perception of unseriousness.”
Yes, you read that right. She’s perceived as unserious—and, according to Stephens, it’s “widespread.”
Even after her debate performance…
Even after speaking coherently on topics ranging from abortion, immigration to international affairs…
Even after her past experience as an Attorney General and serving the people in various jobs since then, not least of which as Vice President…
She’s unserious?
BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
Harris faces what women must face everywhere we go. Especially as a leader—be it a country or an organization. It’s the goldilocks story writ large. But, we’re never deemed to be “just right.”
As a woman leader, you have to show you are approachable and friendly, or you will be deemed bitchy, mean or worse, unkind (we all know what happened to Ellen DeGeneres when she was labeled with the ‘unkind’ moniker.)
At the same time, you must be serious. Hilary Clinton was serious. Dead serious. Most of the time. And she was labeled as “unrelatable.”
We as women can never win, especially when we start to contort ourselves into pretzels to TRY to be all those things that are expected of us. It’s a zero-sum game. We aren’t given the benefit of the doubt.
Yet men like Trump or J.D. Vance? We know exactly where they stand. Or, with Trump, where he stands one day, depending on the group he’s speaking to, and then changes the next day, if he thinks it’s going to benefit HIM.
And yet, we’re still discussing Harris’ “perceived unseriousness?”
Please. This is now bordering on insanity.
WOMEN GOVERN DIFFERENTLY
As a woman, we’re used to making tough decisions, but we often do this through consensus.
Maybe this is something people can’t wrap their minds around?
What about character? Values? General basic human decency? Can undecided voters not see the difference between these two?
I don’t understand people, who, when they are legally able, don’t vote. On purpose. You’re not protesting anything, really. You’re squandering an opportunity to make a difference in your country and the world, quite frankly.
To all the undecided voters in the United States: I know you might not care about the rest of the world, but I can assure you, the rest of the world really, really, cares about you. PLEASE VOTE.
CAN YOU TRY SOMETHING NEW?
In Canada, we operate nationally with three political parties—the Liberals, Conservatives and the NDP.
The Liberals would be equivalent to your Democrats, Conservatives your Republicans and the NDP would be the equivalent to the left-wing of your Democratic party. Think Bernie Sanders and AOC.
I have never aligned with one party or another—perhaps that’s my training as a journalist working for Canada’s national broadcaster. We were never allowed to voice our political opinion, lest we be seen as biased. Imagine that in today’s news media landscape. It’s almost laughable.
Regardless, I took this to heart. I was also in my early 20’s and didn’t have a clue about politics, vis a vis, policies, economics and platforms. In my mind, I voted for the guy (and yes, it was only ever guys) who seemed to be the most decent person.
Given the stakes of your election, could you try doing that this time out? Voting for decency? Would that be so hard?
I know, I know. You’ve never had a female President. So, you might not be sure how a woman would govern. There will be a difference, but it will be more in style, not substance. We tend to lead through consensus.
In fact, because of the way we grew up, we are hard wired to not share our opinions too readily. We take stock, we listen to what others have to say, we try to find what we have in common. Then, we make a decision.
This isn’t a bad thing. Embrace it.
THINKING AHEAD
If you’re not getting what you want from Harris, because she’s not an idiot and she won’t give the other side a sound bite they can twist into something sinister this close to the election…
How about thinking ahead for a minute and play out a few scenarios with me:
J.D. Vance is the Vice-President of the United States and something happens to the elderly Trump during his term (remember this is hypothetical, but there does seem to be a lot of people wanting to shoot him.) Do you really want Vance at the helm? At this point, he’s sounding even more de-ranged than Trump.3
Trump wants to be like Putin. His tendency towards autocrats like Putin or Hungary’s Viktor Orban, is because being an authoritarian autocrat is the only way he knows how to be. He treats the Office of the President as if it’s a subsidiary of one of his companies. His own fiefdom. He thinks he’s the CEO and his decision is final. But, this isn’t the business world or reality TV. It’s REALITY.
Project 2025. When someone shows you who they are believe them. Trump rewards his friends. Do you really want the government involved in the bedroom and in decisions regarding what you can do with your body, your family?
Please don’t sit this election out. Let’s adjust parameters and judge this contest on basic human decency. Judge it based on what you saw during the debate—she came out ahead, was a strong, capable woman who is smart, measured, funny and a normal human being.
The other guy is just weird.
C’mon guys. Do better. Be better. We’re all counting on you. Please vote.
Sincerely,
Your Canadian Cousin and Neighbour.
What say you?
If you are an undecided voter in the U.S. right now, what has to happen to have you change your mind?
Would you really not vote? Isn’t that technically a vote for Trump? So, why not come out and just vote for him?
Let me know what’s on your mind either way. I’m so curious and want to hear any insight as to why this race is still a tie!
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NYT - Sept, 19, 2024 - “Kamala Harris holds an edge over Donald J. Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. But new surveys found that the race remains a tossup nationally.” They are both tied at 47 percent. A statistical dead heat.
The Houthi’s are a rebel group in Yemen that are currently targeting commercial ships in international shipping channels. (And why Bret Stephens might think this is a pressing issue for Americans in this election is beyond me. I actually had to re-read that sentence in his op/ed to ensure I was reading it right.)
When the paper of record, The New York Times, starts making sense of Trump's "word salad" you know there's a conservative bias in the media. Add to that our history of gerrymandering (manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one party or class) and voter suppression of marginalized communities and you see Trump and Harris tied in the polls.
There's also the US's antiquated electoral college creating swing states when we've had the technology to count every vote individually for over 100 years. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million in 2016, but who's counting? In New York State, which is overwhelmingly Democratic, my vote doesn't really count as much as in a swing state vote like New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
Let's not forget about campaign finance loopholes and the lack a set period of time for campaigning. Our system favors he (and occasionally she) who can raise the most amount of money in an unlimited amount of time. Candidates waste millions of taxpayer dollars in primaries alone, and some even drop out before the primary.
Maybe we'll make it into the 20th century one of these days (yes, I know it's the 21st century, but we're 100 years behind), but until then I'll saddle up my horse drawn cart after Sunday church services and make the long trek into town where I can sell my harvest on the first Tuesday in November and cast my vote while I'm at it.
Please understand that the US media has been mostly and recently bought out by rich billionaire conservatives, and they have a motive to keep us on edge and keep DJT in the news. I don't buy it for a minute!! More people see through DJT than ever before, there's just no logical way it is still deadlocked. Nope. Doesn't mean we let up, just means we go harder.